


Superstitions (They Quarantine Gilmores, Don't They?)

by enjolras_lexa



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Bisexuality, Domestic Fluff, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Minor Angst, Oh my god they were quarantined, Polyamory, Pre-Relationship, Quarantine, Slice of Life, Some Plot, Yale - Freeform, bc i'm angsty but mostly i need fluff rn, i miss my SO
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:13:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23389321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enjolras_lexa/pseuds/enjolras_lexa
Summary: Rory Gilmore had never been superstitious before. No, the Gilmores prided themselves on adhering to the facts.But when everything went to hell in a handbasket on Friday the 13th 2020, Rory wondered if there mightn’t be something to superstition after all.
Relationships: Paris Geller & Jess Mariano, Paris Geller/Rory Gilmore, Paris Geller/Rory Gilmore/Jess Mariano, Rory Gilmore/Jess Mariano
Comments: 11
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

Rory Gilmore had never been superstitious before. That was how Lorelei had raised her. Opening an umbrella indoors was a useful trick to see if it worked, and only bad luck if you do it too close to a lamp. Breaking a mirror was only a major hassle to clean up. Black cats were cute and snuggly (but Lorelei was still not allowed pets!), and rabbits feet were not good luck charms but rather very bad luck for rabbits. It was one of the few things Lorelei shared with Richard and Emily, Rory thought, other than obstinacy and fierce loyalty to loved ones: none of the Gilmores ever put up with any nonsense. Not only no classic superstitions, but no fear of saying the word ‘Macbeth’ in a theatre nor any personal attachment to horoscopes or healing crystals. No, the Gilmores prided themselves on adhering to the facts.

But when everything went to hell in a handbasket on Friday the 13th 2020, Rory wondered if there mightn’t be something to superstition after all.

When the recommendation to self-isolate, practice social distancing, and work from home had been introduced, Rory had remained relatively calm and optimistic.

“We can’t control the greater situation, so we’ll monitor our own behavior,” she’d said reasonably. “It’s not like we’re becoming shut-ins, we can still go for walks in the neighbourhood to get some air, we can get necessary groceries, we just can’t be social for a certain time period. There’s three of us living here though and we all like each other, so that’s taken care of! And we’ll wash our hands and keep our home clean.”

Paris, naturally, had been the picture of calmness and serenity in the face of a crisis.

“OUT OF MY WAY!” She’d toppled Jess onto the coffee table and immediately started disinfecting all the doorknobs and putting her massive stock of cleaning products to good use. (The cleaning products and hand sanitizers were not newly acquired Coronavirus-specific, but just part of the natural living-as-Paris-Geller way of life.

“Hey watch it!” Jess shouted after her.

“Bite me, Mariano.”

Jess rounded on Rory. “You better control your roommate, before this pandemic gets even more fan-fucking-tastic than it already is.”

“Right,” Rory said to no one, Jess having already retreated to his bedroom. “I share a room with her. Yay….”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little scene, not all the chapters will be this short (hopefully)

“Jess? Are you still up?” Rory bounced on the balls of her feet outside his bedroom door later that night.

If he wasn’t up she’d just sleep on the couch, but it was a fancy one Emily had picked out and had shipped to them when she’d surprise-redecorated their living room, and it was _so_ uncomfortable.

Fortunately for her back, Jess answered.

“Yeah?” He was bleary-eyed and his longish hair was bedhead-y when he opened the door.

“Oh.” She flushed with embarrassment. At least he didn’t sleep nude, he was wearing sweatpants and that Metallica T-shirt Lorelei had hated. Her pyjama shirt on the other hand felt very flimsy, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s only one, and you usually stay up later I thought, but you were obviously asleep, sorry—”

“Nah, it’s okay, I’m up now. What happened? Paris keep you up?”

It wasn’t the first time Rory had knocked on his door late at night. (She blushed at the implications of her own thoughts. NOT FOR THAT REASON. Jeez thoughts, cut it out.) At least his snoring had gotten better since Paris had insisted she could hear him through the wall and made him wear those nose strips.

“Yeah,” she said distractedly. "She’d been watching Youtube videos about Coronavirus for about an hour until I threatened to tell Doyle and have her taken off Religion Beat at the paper.”

Jess’ eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t—”

“Of course not, but she doesn’t have to know that.”

“Gilmore, I’m almost impressed. So if she stopped—”

“Well now she’s doing assignments, so,” Rory shrugged. “Can I sleep with you? I-I-I mean, here? Can I sleep..… _here_?” She felt her face heat up again. They hadn’t even slept together (in the sex sense) when they had been dating, she certainly wasn’t going to proposition him now that they were exes who’d stayed friends.

Jess didn’t seem to notice her flailing. “Yeah, sure.” He stepped aside to let her in, rubbing crust out of the corners of his eyes. “Bed straight away, or Netflix until you feel sleepy, or….” His voice trailed off.

“Bed straight away, I think,” Rory said through a yawn.

Jess rubbed at his eyes again and stretched his arms. “Do you want the wall side or the outside?”

“Wall please,” Rory said, scooting in.

“Your call, but if there’s a murderer in the night….I’ll get killed,” he finished weakly.

“Paris will protect you,” Rory said offhandedly.

“Yeah,” Jess agreed, “Her krav maga skills combined with our sixty locks on the door. Anyway, night.”

“Night,” said Rory. She was already wishing she hadn’t picked wall. They slept back to back whenever they did this, but it was impossible to share a twin bed without having some physical contact with the other person. She shifted slightly.

Jess on the other hand had already fallen asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How's everyone coping?  
> Hope you like it so far <3   
> Feel free to kudos/comment/subscribe if you'd like to read more <3


	3. Chapter 3

It had been about a week, and Rory was slowly losing her mind. 

The days all blended together. Most days she got up by ten or eleven, made some progress on her assignments or studying for final exams, then watched an episode of something, went for a quick walk around the block to get some fresh air, then doing miscellaneous things until about midnight. She'd gotten into a routine, which logically she knew was a good thing. Friday night dinners became Friday night phone calls, and of course she still spoke to her mother multiple times a day. Lorelei was using the extra time to catch up on the long list of Netflix series she'd been adding to her watch list and ignoring for the past two years. Rory knew she was lucky. Neither herself nor anyone she knew had been infected. She was isolating with her roommates who were, yes, neurotic at times, but still two of her closest friends barring Lane. Plenty of people had it so much worse, for example Lane, who was with her mother 24/7 under normal circumstances and if her texts were any indicator very close to going 'round the bend for good and all. Rory should be happy. And yet, she still went to bed every night feeling nothing but helpless.

Paris on the other hand, neurotic, insane Paris, was coping, albeit in her own insane neurotic Parisian way. After the initial shock, she'd used the virus as the final permission she needed to completely organize every aspect of her life. She'd advised Rory to do the same. 

"No way!" Rory protested. "Look at that thing, it's huge! How can you live like that?"

The schedule was enormous. It was made of dozens of sheets of printer paper taped together to cover the entire length of one of their bedroom walls. 6am to 9:23am were on the ceiling above Paris' bed. The whole monstrosity was colour-coded and highlighted and sticky-noted within an inch of its life.

"This 'thing' is a _godsend_ ," said Paris passionately, observing her work with pride. "Every minute of every day is accounted for and maximized to its full potential! The alarm I set on my phone goes off at six a m sharp, so I wake up to the sound of gentle windchimes sounding in a light breeze. Six to six-oh-five are allotted for stretching and groaning, rubbing crust out of my eyes, and general morning grouchiness. I get out of bed at six-oh-six to get the coffee that is ready-made because I set up the coffee maker the night before to go off at five-fifty-seven. I'll not bore you with _all_ the details, but I shower at seven thirty, get dressed in a comfy yet presentable outfit, and start working by eight. I have time set aside for meals, for bathroom breaks, for craft time, there's even an alternate schedule for weekends and mental health days for when I find I can't do as much as I'd like. I study until nine p m, have leisure time until eleven, then set out tomorrow's coffee and outfit. I practically have time management down to a science."

Jess peered his head in the doorway. "So what are you supposed to be doing while you take twenty minutes to explain this crap to people who neither asked nor care?"

Paris' face went pale. She ran her finger down the list of tasks, then let out a little scream and ran out of the room.

Rory lightly smacked Jess on the shoulder. "Well that was just mean!"

"What can I say, I'm a cruel man," Jess shot back. "I'll be in my room." 

"Working on that book of yours?" Rory called after his retreating frame. He stopped dead. 

"My what?" he said darkly.

"You left your door partway open yesterday," Rory said hesitantly. "You were typing. A lot. So you're working on your novel again? That's amazing."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jess said. "I'm going to my room."

"To type another brilliant chapter?" Rory called. 

"To masturbate," Jess said matter-of-fact, "Clears the mind." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading <3


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.....this has gone on way the fuck longer than most people thought huh 
> 
> Just a quick little vignette tonight, maybe I’ll post a proper length chapter someday but I think we’re looking at drabbles for now

“So how’s everything been?”

Rory didn’t know how to answer Lorelei’s question. “Good? I guess?” She switched which hand she was using to hold her cell phone, and poured herself a generous cup of coffee in her Chandler Bing mug. “Paris is being very Paris, Jess is being very Jess, everything’s shockingly normal.”

“Your roommates do defy explanation on a good day,” Lorelei agreed.

“Anyway,” Rory said, “how are you and Luke doing?”

“Do you want the PG-13 explanation or the kinkier but much more truthful one?”

“Well now I can avoid Luke indefinitely but dodging his calls might get tricky, so I’ll take whatever explanation is the least likely to scar me for life.”

Lorelei giggled. “We’re good. Neither of us can really work via zoom call, but we’ve been helping out with some town stuff. My parents have actually loaned us a little money to get by, but we’re saving a lot considering how much takeout we’re ordering on top of groceries for Luke’s-style cooking. He wears this apron now, and these sweatpants for traipsing around the house in, its all very sexy.” 

“Doesn’t Stars Hollow have zero COVID cases? How locked down can you be?”

“Oh trust me, Taylor is making sure everybody’s taking this super duper seriously. Virtual town meetings, updates on the number of cases in the greater Hartford area multiple times a day, it’s been insane.”

“I thought Taylor hated the internet,” said Rory.

“Oh I didn’t tell you? He got Twitter last month.”

“Oh dear.”

“Yup,” said Lorelei, popping the p.

”It’s like the tumblr blog for the town fiasco of 2014.” 

“So you’re good? Really good, not ‘I don’t want mommy to worry’ good?”

“I’m really really good!” Rory insisted. “Whats with the third degree?”

“Well I’ve been all happy go lucky with my Luke and now endless supply of coffee and food, we saw The Godfather last night for the third time this week, all is well. So I wanna make sure my kid is good and not losing her mind around her psychotic roommates,” Lorelei said without stopping for breath. “You’re really okay? I can have Luke drop off a care package!”

“Hmm, tempting,” Rory said, mulling it over. “Deal, I’ll text you a list of the books I want from my room but honestly just some food would be good right now. Paris is on a health kick again and—“

“Say no more, the mom is on it!” Lorelei said. “Luke was gonna come by anyway, he’s got some stuff for Jess too.”

Rory gasped dramatically. “So I’m not the only kid he brings food for? My heart just stopped!”

“Love you bye,” said her mother.

Paris came in the room. “Are you done? I need to borrow your phone, mines totally dead.” 

“It’s all yours,” Rory said begrudgingly. She passed it over. “I think my mom might’ve just implied that she and my soon to be stepdad are doing bondage to pass the time.”

“Hey, you’re the one with the super-close mother-daughter bond,” Paris said. “The best thing about coronavirus is that I don’t have to put up with any awkward family togetherness.”

Rory winced. “Come to think of it, yeah that’s right. Between you, Jess, my mother, Lane— no one around me has an actual relationship with their mothers! That’s insane, don’t you think?”

Paris was already on the phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where are you folks in the world, and what’s your pandemic situation?  
> Also thankyousomuch for reading! Please kudos and comment to keep me semi-motivated <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!

It was a rare, quiet evening.

Rory, Paris, and Jess were side-by-side-by-side on their couch that night, doing a no-costumes, no-trick-or-treaters, cozy quiet Halloween of watching movies. Hot chocolate was on the menu, as well as obscene amounts of takeout.

"So glad I'm here and not with my parents anymore," Paris said abruptly, breaking the silence.

"Are they on or off right now?" Jess asked.

"On, sadly," Paris huffed, "On and planning to add an extension onto the house. Imagine how long that takes. How _noisy_. If I still lived with them I'd have committed patricide by now."

Jess nodded understandingly. "Yeah, Rory remember when we were re-doing Luke's? It was insane."

"No, my parents never just do something like that. They have to start a project, make a lot of noise for a few weeks, then abandon it and take up another one. And of course they'd leave rooms without doors, half-finished outdoor stuff, a staircase half varnished in one shade and the rest in another. An extension would turn into a kitchen re-do before you can say power drill."

On screen, the couple broke up at the typical three-quarter mark, where he would then inevitably confess his love to her and live happily ever after. The rain outside began to pick up again, and Rory could smell wet leaves coming in through the slightly opened window. She sipped her hot chocolate, and sighed happily. She'd had a great home life unlike the other two, but even Rory was beyond happy to be living here instead. Everyone shifted then got more comfortable where they were and burrowed deeper into their nest of hoodies and blankets.

"This is nice," Paris said after a while.

"Happy Halloween."


	6. Chapter 6

For a long while nothing very much in particular happened, then everything seemed to happen at once.

The election was eventful to say the least, then Lorelei and Luke had a little fight and made up again, then Richard Gilmore had a few Emily-land style moments for a change of hiring and firing a series of gardeners. The ‘Lukelei’ spat had been over whether they should get Dog Paul Anka a little brother or sister. Strangely enough, Luke had been for and Lorelei against. Luke thought since they were at home so much anyway they might as well go for it, but Lorelei had thought a second dog would make Paul Anka jealous. So they had decided that the obvious solution was to get a cat and call her Ingrid Bergman. Paul Anka, while very skittish about rabbits, snails, stairs, wheelbarrows, and being watched while he ate, was actually very calm around cats. So it all worked out in the end.

Lots of petty dramas mixed in with a truly insane state of the world, Rory thought. For the most part, Yale was good and she wasn’t too bored and Paris was finally taking her theory classes towards getting her driver’s licence online. So things were good. That last mostly involved Paris retaking all the practice tests over and over until she got everything perfect. Jess was learning how to play guitar. All was well.


	7. Chapter 7

“We should play Drink or Dare,” Jess suggested one night. “Or strip poker.”

It was a boring night, when they had watched most of the things on their ‘to be watched’ list, and didn’t have very many assignments or anything going on. So, Jess elaborated, it would make a good change to actually do something for once. Since they couldn’t really go anywhere….well.

“I am not playing strip poker, thank you very much,” said Paris.

“Hear, hear,” Rory added.

“Drink or Dare then,” Jess implored.

“I’m guessing the rules are in the title?” Paris raised an eyebrow.

“Bingo.”

“We could play Bingo instead,” Rory muttered. “Or start another puzzle.”

“No way,” said Jess, “Paris the Puzzle Despot is finished with her reign of terror. I am not resuming my post as an underling colour-sorter.”

“I only got to find edge pieces,” Rory remembered.

“Do we even have any liquor left?” Paris asked.

“Uhh, just peach schnapps. Ow! Fuck.” Jess had hit his head getting out of the part of the bookcase that served as their liquor cabinet.

Paris made a face. “Better than nothing.”

“Is it?” Rory questioned.

An hour later, they were all drunk and Rory had made out with both Jess and Paris.


End file.
